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Maternal anxiety from pregnancy to 2 years postpartum: transactional patterns of maternal early adversity and child temperament

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Abstract

The aims of this study were to examine the anxiety trajectories of women from pregnancy to 2 years postpartum and to assess the influence of their early life experiences and the temperament of the child on these trajectories. We evaluated state anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) at pregnancy and 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postpartum and determined its course as a function of self-reported early adverse experiences (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) and the temperament of the child at 18 months (Early Child Behavior Questionnaire). Based on growth curve modeling, we found that anxiety followed a general U-shape pattern from gestation to 2 years postpartum, which was modified by early life experience of women. Greater early adversity was associated with higher gestational anxiety, followed by a marked decrease once the baby was born, and subsequent increase during the later postpartum period. The temperament of the child also modulated anxiety trajectories. Thus, mothers of children high in negative affectivity and who also experienced greater early adversity had elevated and flat anxiety trajectories, while child extraversion was associated with increasing anxiety courses approaching 2 years postpartum. These results show that maternal anxiety dynamically changes through the postpartum period with a course that is affected by previous and current experiences.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Patricia Szymkow, Carmen MacPherson, and the entire Hamilton team and Vincent Jolivet, Helene Gaudreau, Lisa Barbosa, and the entire Montreal team for all their work in both research sites. This study was funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) trajectory grant for the MAVAN (PI: MM) and by CIHR grants (ASF and RL), CSIC, PEDECIBA/SNI-ANII (DA), the Canadian Vanier Scholarship Program (DTB), and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (WJ). We would like to thank André Plamondon for his statistical advice, the research assistants who carried out the laboratory and home visits, and the women and their infants who so enthusiastically participated in this study. They have been wonderful.

Conflict of interest

No biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest are reported by any author.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physiology & Nutrition Department, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la Republica, Igua 4225, Montevideo, ZC 11400, Uruguay

    Daniella Agrati

  2. Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Dillon Browne

  3. Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Wibke Jonas

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM), William Davis Building, Mississauga, ON, L5L1C6, Canada

    Wibke Jonas & Alison S. Fleming

  5. Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology & Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Michael Meaney

  6. Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

    Leslie Atkinson

  7. Women’s Health Concerns Clinic, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada

    Meir Steiner

  8. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

    Meir Steiner

  9. Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Alison S. Fleming

Authors
  1. Daniella Agrati
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  2. Dillon Browne
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  3. Wibke Jonas
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  4. Michael Meaney
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  5. Leslie Atkinson
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  6. Meir Steiner
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  7. Alison S. Fleming
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on behalf of the MAVAN research team

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Daniella Agrati or Alison S. Fleming.

Additional information

Daniella Agrati and Dillon Browne made equal primary contributions to the paper; order established alphabetically.

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Agrati, D., Browne, D., Jonas, W. et al. Maternal anxiety from pregnancy to 2 years postpartum: transactional patterns of maternal early adversity and child temperament. Arch Womens Ment Health 18, 693–705 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-014-0491-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-014-0491-y

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